HELEN: The Wine Dark Sea

Embarrassed, Helen discounted the compliment. "Perhaps it's only the sunlight reflected off your beautiful shining sea. Troy is such a magnificent place, and I'll love living here. How might I help you today?"

"Your company is all I ask. Alexandros should show you around the palace so you'll be able to find your way without becoming lost. It's a bit of a labyrinth I'm afraid. Tomorrow, or perhaps the next day, I'll have my seamstresses show you some of our fine fabrics. Please don't regard me as presumptuous, but my daughters and sons' wives love adding to their wardrobes. No woman ever has too many pretty clothes."

Helen would rather have discussed horses, but clearly Hecuba regarded new fashions as a must. "Thank you. I'd love to have something new."

The conversation flowed so easily between them, Helen dared ask the question that demanded an answer. "I've heard Cassandra's name, but she wasn't with the women last night. Is she ill?"

Hecuba pursed her mouth and looked away. "Apollo gave her and her brother, Helenus, the gift of prophecy. She offended the god somehow, and now drifts in her own world of imagined catastrophes. Some of our family has been unkind to her, but if you seek her out, you'll find her to be a fragile soul who doesn't deserve ridicule. I can already see you're too genteel a woman to stoop so low."

"Of course not." They spoke a while longer, and when excused, Helen returned to her room. She found a tray with date cakes and fresh pears on a small table by the door, so a servant had come in, but Paris hadn't wakened. She sat down beside him and leaned over to kiss his cheek. He opened one eye and quickly closed it.

"Is this what I can expect from you each morn?" she asked. "I'd hoped to go riding. Is it too late to visit the parents who raised you?"

He rolled over on his back and covered a wide yawn with both hands before looking up at her. "First, I need to find a fine horse for you, so tomorrow woul

d be better, or the next day." He reached for her hand and laced her fingers in his.

She squeezed his hand. "If we stay here, will you show me around the palace so I don't become too easily lost? Can we do at least that much today?"

He kissed her fingertips and rolled off the end of the intricately inlaid bed. He stood and stretched his arms above his head. "I need to bathe, dress in clean clothes, and then we'll see every chamber of the palace if you'd like."

"Not everyone will invite us in," she replied.

"Most will," he assured her.

She took a slice of pear and went out on the balcony to wait for him. Troy fascinated her, and she studied the way the city spread out around the hill with trails leading down to the surrounding wall. More people than she'd ever met lived behind the massive walls, but the great main entrance, the Scaean Gate, stood open and men and women walked in and out freely.

In the distance, across the Trojan Plain, she could see fishermen with boats in the water, royal ships like the one that had brought them there, sturdy merchant ships, and what had to be warships aligned on the beach beyond. Clearly the Trojans loved to sail far and wide to trade. The view along the shore constantly shifted, but as entertaining as it was, she was anxious to ride and see the surrounding countryside.

When Paris returned still shaking drops of water from his hair, she relaxed against him and folded her hands over his. "Your mother warned me not everyone would be glad we're here."

"I can't deny it, but how did she expect you to respond?" He nibbled her ear to make her giggle.

"I don't know. Maybe she didn't want me to be hurt if some of your family are rude."

He turned her in his arms. "If anyone is rude to you, I'll make them very sorry."

His brows dipped in a stern line, and while she'd seldom seen him scowl, it made him look quite menacing. "I don't want to create conflict here. I'd rather find a comfortable place within your family. Being a guest in Troy is very different from being queen in my own land."

He kept her tightly wrapped in his arms. "I'm very new here too, but surely Troy will prove to be a fine home for us both. Now come with me, and I'll show you all I know about this wonderful palace."

This was the life she'd chosen, and she nearly danced along by his side as they made their way down the colorful corridor.

* * *

Hektor made his preferences clear. "You are to avoid the Spartan whore. Turn your back on her whenever possible. It's a disgrace to Troy to harbor her here."

Disappointed, Andromache frowned but reluctantly nodded. He'd been the first to mention Helen's name that morning, but she couldn't understand the fury of his anger. "Perhaps it's belief in the curse that will make it come true."

"No, it's the fact the curse was ignored that will take us to the brink of a terrible war. It makes me ill to look at Alexandros, and all I see of Helen, may all the gods damn her, is a misty golden blur."

She let him go without arguing, but he'd never know what took place in the women's quarters. She'd been drawn to Helen, whom she found kind and engaging, and wanted her for a friend. Even if Hektor couldn't see past the Spartan queen's radiant beauty, she'd found her to be warm and friendly and wouldn't respond by being haughty and aloof. Hecuba had welcomed her, and she'd follow her mother-in-law's example and let her husband believe whatever he chose. Surely no harm could come from that.

* * *

The citadel had its own surrounding defensive wall, and as Paris and Helen walked along behind it, she noticed something sparkling on the path. "Look at this." She picked up a red stone and turned it in her hand. "How pretty this is. It's both smooth and shiny. I wonder if someone's lost it from a piece of jewelry."

He took it and rolled it between his palms. "Ask my mother. She'll recognize it if it belongs to someone."